Here are a few common lumber terms you might find useful.
Front Range Lumber and the industry use these words every day:
WANE – A round edge on a board where the edge of the trunk was. Said differently: the mill pushed and tried to get a 2×6 where really only a good 2×4 should have been cut.
SURFACED – Smoothened by planers or other machinery to obtain a smooth finished surface.
GREEN – Lumber that has not been seasoned or dried.
RANDOM WIDTH (OR RANDOM LENGTHS) – The mill cut to just whatever the maximum length (or width) they could from the raw lumber from a tree. Not cut to standard 8’, 10’, etc lengths.
KDAT – Lumber that is Kiln Dried After Treatment.
NOMINAL – Refers to the measurement of a board. An actual measurement of a smooth sawn “nominal” 2×4 is 1-1/2” x 3-1/2” as an example.
KNOT – A knot is an imperfection in the wood, what many people don’t realize is a knot in a board was where the branch grew out of the tree trunk!
VOID -Relates to plywood, places where the knot fell out of the veneer, creating a hole in that place.
CHECK – A crack in the board’s end running into the board.
CROWN – When a board is humped. Alternatively, looking at a board’s end and examining the tree ring pattern. Boards should always be installed “crown up”.
